"It hurts," Milner told Sky Sports News. "Well done to Manchester United, they're obviously a strong team and the league doesn't lie, so they deserve the league.

"We're massively disappointed, but it fuels the fire for next season and we're desperate to go again next season to try and win it back. Hopefully we can finish this season with silverware.

"We've seen how hard it is to retain the title and how much they [United] used that disappointment from last season to drive them on this year.

"They've been very good in the league, very solid and seem to grind out results every week. They've deserved it and we have to look at where we've gone wrong and try to put that right."

Milner believes City’s failure to finish games off during periods of dominance is one the main reasons for losing out to United, adding: "There have been games when we have dropped points when we shouldn't have done.

"There have been games where we've been well on top and not put teams to bed. When we've had that period of dominance in a game, we've not scored two or three more goals and that's maybe where we could have improved this year.

"But if you look at our defensive record this year, it's still very strong and as a team we've got to keep improving."